1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and to an apparatus for transmitting event data to a display device and/or to a data processing device connectable thereto, wherein both image sequences for displaying images of an event, in particular in the form of a television image, and supplemental data for the optical and/or acoustic display of additional information relating to the event are transmitted as event data to the named display device and/or to the data processing device connectable thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
On the live transmission of sports events and/or entertainment events over larger distances, satellite links or satellite transmission channels have been used in more recent times to be able also to transmit the images sequences and sound sequences of the respective event as directly as possible without time offset—that is substantially with only a time offset due to the time of transit of the signal—to far-away points of the earth. Transmission channels of high bandwidth are required for this purpose to be able to transmit image sequences and sound sequences of high quality to the screens at high resolution. Such transmission channels, which are usually only leased by the broadcasters, are as a rule very expensive so that the maximum possible bandwidth for the transmission should be utilized in the most efficient manner.
Special problems arise in this respect when, in addition to the live image sequences and sound sequences, additional information should be transmitted which require a preparation before the actual live transmission or a post-processing after the actual live transmission, but do not themselves require any high bandwidths. This is in particular the case on the transmission of game events which can be played with a stake and/or on betting events such as sports bets for which the odds should be determined and displayed before the respective event, while the odds recorded after the transmission of the event, which is the subject of the bets, should be transmitted. In a similar manner, the full utilization of the maximally available bandwidth of an expensive transmission channel is also difficult to achieve when the events to be transmitted overlap one another or, conversely, do not follow one another seamlessly so that there is a gap between the events.
Various transmission processes have already been proposed to combat the problems of inefficient bandwidth utilization. EP 1986359, for instance, describes a time-slice signaling for digital broadband broadcasting in which a data packet to be transmitted is first transmitted to an elastic buffer at a fast transmission rate from where the transmission then takes place at a lower speed, wherein information on the time interval to the following data packet is decoded from the buffered data packet.
WO 2008/020412 A2 describes a transmission process for image sequences of a television image to a receiver to which supplemental event data should also be transmitted. In this respect, the television image sequences and the supplemental event data are transmitted sequentially at different intervals, wherein the number of transmission intervals for the event data being reduced with respect to the image sequence transmission intervals to save energy in the standby mode of the receiver.
An event transmitter is furthermore known from WO 2007/090028 which carries out the transmission of event data with multiplexing and bandwidth control functions.